So, I’ve been casually aware of Blood Bowl for decades as, ‘A Games Workship money pit/addiction that you should stay away from.’ And until I saw Blitz Bowl on the shelves, I’d succeeded in doing just that.

But my son and I have been playing Battleball for a few years, and the itch for something slightly more complex was there, so I got him Blitz Bowl for Christmas.

Last night we got around to open boxing it... and I proceeded to spend a few hours getting my fingers covered in super glue and getting jabbed by sharp Orky bits. A miniatures artiste I ain’t.

We have yet to play, but I’m already thinking about the agony/ecstasy of expanding to new teams, and I have questions.

1.) Is it GW’s notion that I buy a full Blood Bowl team set, even though I just need six miniatures for Blitz Bowl?

2.) I’ve seen some third party companies that sell their own BB-inspired minis, but most of them appear to be UK-based. Are there any similar US companies?

3.) I really like the idea of NOT painting the minis, but also like how the base set minis are color-coded. Does anyone know of any on-demand, 3D-printable team sets where I could choose the plastic color (on Shapeways, or a similar 3D-printing marketplace)?

4.) I’ve read... horror stories about the complexity of the GW Elven Union set (my base set orcs & humans had three pieces each; the elven set sounds like six or seven pieces per player). If I didn’t particularly enjoy putting together the base set minis, should I steer clear? And are there easier options, if I still want elves?

Thanks for any advice you can offer. The through-line is that I want to add new teams cheaply and with as little time/effort in putting together the models as I can.

1. Yeah, probably. Although I will say because they don't use big guys, a single Blood Bowl team pack gives you everything you need. You can either split a pack with a friend, or conversely, you could paint the remainder in a different color to do Human vs. Human, Orc vs. Orc, etc. match ups.

2. Impact Miniatures is in Indiana, I believe. They sell some third party miniatures as well as some in house resin sets. Personally, I think Willy's makes the best miniatures for the price. However, I like all of GWs new stuff (with the exception of the Dark Elves), and those team boxes are priced really competitively. I don't think you'll get much savings out of 6 separate miniatures from a 3rd party, but YMMV.

3. No, but if that's an issue for you, I would just go to your local big box store, grab 4 or 5 cans of flat primer in various colors and just spray the team the desired color.

4. You will not enjoy the Elven set. It isn't necessarily complex, but there's patience involved with gluing multiple pieces. I also found the goblins to be a tad annoying. Dwarves and Skaven are as easy as Humans and Orcs in my opinion, maybe grab those first?

Of course, you could always buy a box of humans, paint one purple, one green and say the purple ones are dark elves, the green ones are elf union. If you do that, I promise I won't tell anyone.

There are a number of other teams as well. Third party minis will be as expensive as buying a GW team box. Unless you come up with a solution where you use generic minis to represent multiple teams, something like this might be your best bet.

You could split the teams with your son, then you each have that team to play, and can also play mirror matches. You don't have to paint the teams, but it might be fun for each of you the spray paint your team in a flat color of your choice. If you want you could shade and highlight, have that be it and have some nicely personalized teams.

The elven union box set is a challenge, and I say that as an experienced hobbyist. Anyone know if the dark elves are easier to put together?

The elven union box set is a challenge, and I say that as an experienced hobbyist. Anyone know if the dark elves are easier to put together?

Yes and no, in my opinion. Overall they're not as bad as the Elves, but:

1. There are a lot of tiny wrist and leg mounted blades that you need to put on that are a bit of a pain.

2. The Dark Elf Blitzer has no plastic wedge/piece on his foot to insert into the base, you have to pin it or come up with some other way to secure him to the base.

Oh, and I forgot...

3. The Witch Elf has a tiny part of her daggers hilt that attaches near her wrist and for whatever reason I couldn't get it to stay. After several failed attempts the slot it fits into had melted away from the glue so I just gave up. It's a small detail and looks OK regardless.